Download Dauwd's FADER Mix

After catching our ear in 2011 with a pair of gorgeous singles on Pictures, the British producer Dauwd has been awfully silent, at least release-wise. Rumor has it a new EP is just around the corner, but mum is still the word on details. For now, we'll enjoy his super-super smooth, tech-housey FADER mix and a short interview about living in Peckham, sharing a studio with Kindness and why he's anti-tracklist.

Tell us a bit about where you come from. I was born in the States actually. My mother worked in DC at the World Bank, and my father is Iraqi. But I grew up in the countryside of Wales in the UK, in farm town. I studied in Liverpool, then I moved to London recently. My studio is a short walk from my flat. It's a nice room and I share it with another guy, Kindness. Where I live in South London is a place called Peckham. A lot of artists live there, and it's a tiny place so we all drink in the same bars and get to know each other—Vondelpark, Midland, Pearson Sound, Mount Kimbie. It's weird, man.

What's on your mind now besides music? Very little, man, very little. I wish there was more on my mind other than music. I've had a kind of hiatus from releasing, and this next release has been a long time coming. It's been kind of stressful. It's a collection of tracks spanning a year. Now I've got lots of things I'm ready to release after. I'm just waiting for it to come out, waiting to be myself again. There's a distinct change in the sound from what I was making and what I'm making now. I was playing with ideas that were happening at the time, and now the whole scene has kind of moved on, and to be doing that same kind of style would be, I don't know, not cool. It's a hard thing to do, to find a sound you can identify yourself with… I'm kind of neurotic in the studio and I think if I was more prolific I'd worry less.

Is there a concept to the mix? Just music I've been enjoying recently over the past few months, and old tracks I love as well. Trying to make a nice groove that people can enjoy. And I've put a few bits from my EP in there. I'd like not to put a tracklist, though, because people tend to read the tracklist first to sort of check whether it fits into what they want to listen to, and they judge it before they hear it.

I read you are also a chef, is that true? You know, I talk too much in interviews, ha! Initially, I did work as a chef. I mentioned that in an interview and now it keeps coming up. I thought it would be funny. I've had lots of other jobs.